With the money that Manchester City have spent, there is now pressure with every game and there is a greater expectancy from both the supporters and the owners, but that is what comes with being at the top.

There is no doubt that City are on the right lines. The days of them finishing 10th are long gone and, whether it is this season or in the future, they will become a top-four club sooner rather than later. But the timescale is everything for Hughes and the question for Mark is how long has he got to take City into the top four?

Mark is a calm guy, however, and he certainly won’t be panicking. I can point out that they haven’t won any of their last six league games, but he can spin it the other way and tell his players that nobody has beaten them in that run and that they have lost just once all season to an injury-time goal at Manchester United.

If City beat Hull at Eastlands next Saturday, then all the concerns will go away. They will then go into the game at home to Chelsea the following weekend with Eastlands absolutely buzzing and a real big-four feel about the occasion.

But City are being punished for every mistake they make at the moment and it happened again at Liverpool. For the third time in four games, they gave away a lead through bad defending.

Their defensive problems have already been identified this season, but when you look at their personnel, City have a great goalkeeper and some very good defenders. Even if you had the best 11 players in the world it would take time for the players to gel and settle as a team and that is what is happening at City.

The midfield and front-line have settled well, but it’s a different scenario at the back. When I played at Liverpool, both the first team and reserves played exactly the same way, but it still took time to adjust when a new face came into the team. Kolo Touré and Joleon Lescott are still trying to build a partnership at centre-half.

At the start of the season, Touré looked like the player he was three years ago at Arsenal, but now he isn’t playing so well.

City have been shipping too many goals, but even the best players take time to get used to each other and there is no magic formula.

Touré had a fantastic partnership with William Gallas at Arsenal, but Gallas is a different player to Lescott. Even if City had retained Richard Dunne to smooth the transition, there is no guarantee that he would have gelled any better with Touré or Lescott.

City will get it right at some point, though, and the Hull game gives them the opportunity to get back to winning ways. They are one of four clubs, along with Liverpool, Aston Villa and Spurs, who I believe are fighting over the fourth spot. Sunderland have been magnificent under Steve Bruce, but they won’t challenge for fourth.

Despite Tottenham Hotspur’s incredible victory against Wigan and the fact Liverpool have won just one of their last 10 games in all competitions, I still fancy Benítez’s side to finish fourth.

Their sole objective now is to ensure that they are playing Champions League football next season and, although they still have a slim chance of qualifying from the group stages, I don’t see that miracle happening.

Liverpool just have to focus on getting it right in the league. It’s only November, but the league appears their only realistic route back into the Champions League.

They have some difficult fixtures on the horizon, with away games against Everton and Blackburn next up, followed by a home game against Arsenal.

More season-defining games. Liverpool have been having them since October, but the one thing they have in their favour is that they have two big, big players in Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres.

If they can keep them fit and playing, Liverpool have the edge over the rest in the race for fourth place.